Stolen school iPads bring arrests, changes in DeSoto student behavior

A number of iPads have been stolen from DeSoto Parish schools. So far, 20 have been recovered. More than 50 are still missing.

Five students have been arrested and two others are facing charges.

Cedric Clark, principal of Mansfield High School, says all the thefts happened within three weeks, when surveillance cameras weren't working.

Clark explained to KSLA News 12 about why the iPads are important to students in their everyday learning.

"They're their textbooks. They're their means of communicating with their teachers, sending in assignments. For those kids who have missing iPads now, they use textbooks. They turn in assignments the normal way -- before we had iPads," Principal Cedric Clark says.

Now, school leaders tell students to take their iPads with them wherever they go.

The mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has sparked calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses nationwide aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws.

The mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has sparked calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses nationwide aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws.